A glare score based on intra‐ocular light scatter and a questionnaire‐based subjective assessment of glare were determined for 18 patients who had undergone radial keratotomy (RK) two weeks to 27 months previously. Results were compared to those of 15 control subjects. T‐tests showed no significant difference in glare experienced under photopic conditions by RK patients and control subjects. There was no systematic relationship between glare scores and the subjective assessment of glare, nor between glare scores or subjective assessment of glare and the time which had elapsed since surgery. However, a weak relationship (r2=0.36) was found between glare scores and absolute refractive error. It was concluded that RK did not produce significant levels of intra‐ocular light scatter under photopic conditions (155 lux).


Visual search for a downward-pointing triangle among upward-pointing triangles is faster than vice versa, a phenomenon referred to as the downward-pointing triangle superiority (DPTS) effect. Here, we report two new experiments designed to investigate whether this phenomenon also emerges when a triangle appears as a local feature within a wine label. The experimental task was to identify whether all of the wine bottles in a store display were the same or not, while each wine bottle had either a downward- or upward-pointing triangle displayed on its label. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that the participants responded more rapidly when searching for a wine bottle with a downward-pointing triangle on its label than when the target had a triangle pointing upward, indicating the presence of a DPTS effect. In Experiment 2, the DPTS effect was replicated while varying the set size. The magnitude of the DPTS effect increased with increasing set size. Taken together, these results revealed similar visual search results for pictorial stimuli with triangles as local features as for geometric triangular shapes. The implications of these findings for the design of product labels are discussed.


Xenon (Xe) has shown great potential as a stroke treatment due to its exceptional ability to protect brain tissue without inducing side effects. We have previously developed Xe-loaded liposomes for the ultrasound-activated delivery of Xe into the cerebral region and demonstrated their therapeutic efficacy. At present, the sole FDA-approved thrombolytic agent for stroke treatment is recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA). In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential of combining Xe-liposomes with an intravenous rtPA treatment in a clinically relevant embolic rat stroke model. We evaluated the combinational effect using an in vitro clot lysis model and an in vivo embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion (eMCAO) rat model. The treatment groups received intravenous administration of Xe-liposomes (20 mg/kg) at 2 h post-stroke onset, followed by the administration of rtPA (10 mg/kg) at either 2 or 4 h after the onset. Three days after the stroke, behavioral tests were conducted, and brain sections were collected for triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) and TUNEL staining. Infarct size was determined as normalized infarct volume (%). Both in vitro and in vivo clot lysis experiments demonstrated that Xe-liposomes in combination with rtPA resulted in effective clot lysis comparable to the treatment with free rtPA alone. Animals treated with Xe-liposomes in combination with rtPA showed reduced TUNEL-positive cells and demonstrated improved neurological recovery. Importantly, Xe-liposomes in combination with late rtPA treatment reduced rtPA-induced hemorrhage, attributing to the reduction of MMP9 immunoreactivity. This study demonstrates that the combined therapy of Xe-liposomes and rtPA provides enhanced therapeutic efficacy, leading to decreased neuronal cell death and a potential to mitigate hemorrhagic side effects associated with late rtPA treatment.


Purpose Anemia is a worldwide common condition during pregnancy, conferring a number of health risks to mothers. However, very little is known about the association between severity of anemia and severe maternal outcomes. This study aimed to assess the association between severity of anemia during pregnancy and the risk of severe maternal outcomes. Patients and Methods This retrospective cohort study was based on data from China's National Maternal Near Miss Surveillance System for the period 2017–2018, which included 18 hospitals in southern China. Pregnant women admitted for delivery were divided into 4 groups based on severity of anemia during pregnancy: no anemia, mild anemia, moderate anemia, and severe anemia groups. Severe maternal outcomes were a composite of life-threatening conditions (ie, organ dysfunction) as defined by the WHO criteria, occurring at any time after admission until discharge or death. Modified Poisson regression analyses and propensity score-weighted regression analyses were used to estimate the relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of severe maternal outcomes among women with anemia of varying severity during pregnancy. Results The incidence of severe maternal outcomes was 0.3% (417/138,556) in total, and the rates were 0.1% (85/99,755), 0.2% (30/18,502), 1.2% (234/19,697) and 11.3% (68/602) in no anemia, mild anemia, moderate anemia and severe anemia group, respectively. Compared with no anemia, the adjusted RR for severe maternal outcomes was 4.19 (95% CI, 3.20–5.50) in moderate anemia group and 22.12 (95% CI, 15.43–31.69) in severe anemia group; the weighted RR was 1.01 (95% CI, 1.01–1.01) in moderate anemia group and 1.11 (95% CI, 1.07–1.14) in severe anemia group. Conclusion Moderate to severe anemia during pregnancy was independently associated with an increased risk of severe maternal outcomes. Maternal health care providers and pregnant women themselves should give more attention to the prevention and treatment of anemia during pregnancy, especially moderate to severe anemia.


Organizational restructuring is very important especially for firms that operate in a dynamic environment characterized by high competition. Implementation of restructuring strategies should be carried out carefully and with great keenness to ensure that it serves its intended purpose. This study aimed at determining what effects organization restructuring has on performance of commercial banks in Mombasa County. The subvariables  included determining the effects of departmentation , HR restructuring, decentralization of processes and mergers and acquisitions on the performance of commercial banks that operate in the County of Mombasa. The reviewed literature on the relevant theories and perceptions brought forth several objectives that guided the research which included that of departmentation, human resource restructuring, decentralization of processes and mergers and acquisitions. With regards to research methodology, the research design adopted by this study was the survey research design and it was instrumental in bringing out structured perceptions of the respondents with regards to organizational restructuring. Collection of primary data was done in all banks located in Mombasa county, using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data collected and it included findng the mean and standard deviations as well as inferential statistics. The study was expected to contribute knowledge in areas of organization restructuring and organizational performance. The findings from the study established that the banks had adopted various restructuring strategies over the recent past where the organizational restructuring parameters that were adopted to a great extent included departmentalization, humanresource restructuring and decentralization of processes, with mergers and acquisition being adoted to a much lower extent. This research concluded that the commercial banks had adopted organizational restructuring in the recent past by implementing different parameters and that this had resulted in improved performance. From the findings, the researcher recommends the enhancement of communication channels as well as review their existing structures and culture to ensure that it supports the restructuring efforts that are being adopted by the organization.


The use of the Internet to learn involves complex cognitive activities. Educational researchers claim more attention in studying the nature of students' challenges when using digital information for learning purposes. Our research investigated in depth the challenges that secondary students face when solving web information-problem tasks. We thoroughly analysed how forty secondary students (18 girls and 22 boys) solved a scholar task using web information. The students' actions on the computer screen were logged. Findings showed specific difficulties in solving digital tasks due to when (1) typing appropriate search terms, and when (2) selecting reliable and useful results from a "search engine results page", which hinders the correct finding and understanding of web information needed to solve the digital task. In addition, the participants had a lack of reflection regarding the different actions to solve the digital task. Furthermore, our findings revealed that gender was not associated with differences in digital attainment.


We quantify the distortionary effects of nexus tax laws on Amazon's distribution network investments between 1999 and 2018. We highlight the role of two features of the expansion of Amazon's network: densification of the network of distribution facilities and vertical integration into package sortation. Densification results in a reduction in the cost of shipping orders, but comes at the expense of higher facility operating costs in more expensive areas and lower scale economies of processing shipments. Nexus laws furthermore generate additional sales tax liabilities as the network grows. Combining data on household spending across online and offline retailers with detailed data on Amazon's distribution network, we quantify these trade‐offs through a static model of demand and a dynamic model of investment. Our results suggest that Amazon's expansion led to significant shipping cost savings and facilitated the realization of aggregate economies of scale. We find that abolishing nexus tax laws in favor of a non‐discriminatory tax policy would induce the company to decentralize its network, lowering its shipping costs. Non‐discriminatory taxation would also entail lower revenue, however, as tax‐inclusive prices would rise, resulting in a fall in profit overall. This drop and the decline in consumer welfare from higher taxes together fall short of the increases in tax revenue and rival profit, suggesting that the abolishment of nexus laws would lead to an increase in total welfare.


Purpose To investigate the effects of macular pigment optical density (MPOD) on colour vision and colour modulated visual fields using short-wavelength automated perimetry (SWAP).

Methods Macular pigment (MP) spatial profile was measured using customised heterochromatic flicker photometry (cHFP) on 51 normal subjects. Colour vision was assessed using the Oculus anomaloscope [Moreland equation (AME)] and Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue (FM) with optimum confusion axes. A custom designed program on the Humphrey automated perimeter, was used to determine SWAP thresholds at the fovea, and at each degree of retinal eccentricity for the central five degrees. A 440nm Goldmann V stimulus presented on a 100cd/m2 bleaching background was used to isolate the short wave sensitive pathway.

Results While inter-relationships were evident between AME, FM and SWAP, only one colour vision measure (on FM) correlated with MPOD (r=.302, p= 0.03). At similar degrees of eccentricity, SWAP was inversely and statistically significantly correlated with MPOD (e.g. 1-degree retinal eccentricity: r = -0.198, p = 0.047; 3 degrees retinal eccentricity r = -0.290, p = 0.03).

Conclusion Colour vision, even using sensitive tests targeting blue-yellow and blue-green confusion is surprisingly independent of MPOD, while SWAP sensitivity is reduced with increased MPOD. We hypothesize that this is due to long-term adaptation of the retinal blue-yellow pathway to prevailing MPOD in normal subjects, this adaptation being upset by short-term chromatic adaptation in SWAP.

Commercial interest


The volume transport of the Florida Current is determined from the motionally induced voltage difference between Florida and Grand Bahama Island. Simultaneous measurements of potential differences and of volume transport by velocity profiling have a correlation of 0.97. The calibration factor is 25� 0.7 sverdrups per volt, and the root-mean-square discrepancy is 0.7 sverdrup. The induced voltage is about one-half the open-circuit value, implying that the conductance of the sediments and lithosphere is about equal to that of the water column.


OBJECTIVE: To study the number and quality of the referrals from primary care to pneumology. To analyse their relationship to specialist medical training and the attendance pattern. DESIGN: A descriptive, retrospective study. SETTING: A Pneumology Clinic at the Peripheral Specialities Centre at Cartuja (Granada). PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: 597 referrals were gathered. These were for all the patients referred from primary care to this clinic from may to december 1992. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The overall population referral rate per 100,000 inhabitants and month of study was 39.73. The out-clinic doctors referred twice as many patients as health centre (HC) doctors, with OR = 2.01 (1.70 < OR < 2.36). Taken together, general physicians referred three times more than family doctors, with OR = 3.04 (2.54 < OR < 3.78). Regarding the quality of the referral documents, HC doctors accompanied a referral with sufficient information eleven times more often than out-clinic doctors, with OR = 11.38 (6.13 < OR < 21.47). Family doctors contributed this "correct" information thirteen times more often than general physicians without specialist training: OR = 13.50 (8.06 < OR < 22.67). CONCLUSIONS: The number and quality of referrals appear to be closely related to the attendance pattern and in particular to the specialist training of health professionals.


The experiences and challenges that teacher-educators go through tend to be private and go unnoticed (Berry & Loughran, 2005). Through self-study, teacher-educators can re ect on their practices and learn from each other's practices. As a novice teacher- educator who was teaching an inquiry-based teaching science methods class with a collaborative teaching team, I explore my experience of being a teacher-educator through arts-based self-study. In this paper, I discuss how the process of artful inquiry informed my own research and teaching practices. Based on the idea of a/r/tography, I link my artistic, research, and teaching practices together to explore what it means to be becoming pedagogical (Gouzouasis, Irwin, Miles, & Gordon, 2013).


Apomyoglobin was prepared by an extremely mild modification of the acid/butanone technique, and the kinetics of the recombination reaction between this preparation and alkaline haematin were studied. The recombination has been shown to be precisely second-order and mono-phasic. Rate constants obtained from the study are in good agreement with values obtained previously by an indirect technique not involving separation of haem and apoprotein.


This paper presents 1155 accurate equatorial positions for the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and 17 satellites of Jupiter–Neptune. Additional positions for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune can be determined from the planetocentric motions of their satellites given in this paper. All the positions were determined in the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), the IAU standard for all future astrometric reductions, from CCD observations taken with the Flagstaff Astrometric Scanning Transit Telescope (FASTT) and reduced differentially using the ACT reference stars. The methods used to determine these positions are fully described. Accuracies of ±0.″08 to ±0.″25 were obtained in each coordinate, depending on the signal-to-noise ratio observed for each object. In many cases, planets and satellites were imaged in the same CCD field of view, thereby giving excellent relative astrometry (±0.″04) for well-exposed images. Moreover, 424 older FASTT positions determined in 1995–1997 for Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were converted to the ICRF and are given also in this paper. When FASTT positions are compared with modern Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) ephemerides for the planets and satellites considered herein, there is generally good agreement (less than 0.″05) between observation and theory. For the planets, FASTT observations and DE405 ephemerides all agree to better than 0.″05 and, in most cases, less than 0.″03 when mean differences are formed. There are some exceptions for the satellites. Namely, the ephemerides for the outer satellites of Jupiter and Saturn considered in this paper (Himalia, Elara, Pasiphae, and Phoebe) and the Uranian satellites Titania and Oberon probably need improvement as indicated from the FASTT observational data. The former show systematic trends when (FASTT - JPL ephemeris) coordinate differences are plotted against either coordinate position or orbital phase, and the latter show a possible offset between the right ascension of Uranus and those of the two satellites. Future FASTT observations of these planets and satellites are planned in the coming years.


Background As part of improving EoLC at Ashford and St Peter's NHS Foundation Trust (ASPH), the Trust collaborated with Woking and Sam Beare Hospices (WSBH) to increase access to hospice beds for patients who might not traditionally have been considered for referral, by contracting 2 EoLC beds at the hospice. Aims improve the end of life care experience support patient choice around preferred place of care/death promote earlier identification seamless service delivering EOLC Methodology Hospital and Hospice staff developed an agreed pathway. Patients are identified by medical and surgical teams, and then reviewed by the hospital palliative care team, to ensure that the transfer is appropriate and that it's the patient's wish to be admitted to the hospice. The hospital speedily transfers a patient when a bed is available and without a formal referral. Results In the pilot period (3.5 months) there were 34 admissions, with 19 of these patients having a non cancer diagnosis. However, 10 patients died in less than 24 hours. Although all relatives reported they were glad that the patient had been transferred, the project team felt that such a short length of stay was unacceptably high and the process was reviewed. During the following 4 months, there were 22 admissions with 2 deaths in less than 24 hours. 9 of these patients had a non cancer diagnosis. Conclusion This model has helped to increase the awareness of EoLC in ASPH and to promote closer collaboration with the hospice. It has illustrated the challenges of identifying patients at the EoL. The high number of patients dying in less that 24 hours may reflect the need for earlier identification and that in some non malignant conditions, treatment may continue until close to death.


Cloud computing is not legally defined nor in national legislation or in European regulation. There are some legal provisions, for instance, Directive 95/46/CE, implemented in national legislation by Law no. 677/2001 regarding the protection of personal data of individuals, Directive 2002/58/CE implemented by Law no. 506/2004 regarding personal data and the protection of private life in electronic communication. Although there is no unity in the EU process of regulating the concept of cloud computing, several entities, institutions and authorities have elaborated guides for the cloud computing beneficiaries in order for them to make the best decision when choosing the provider of this service (for example: Guidelines On The Use Of Cloud Computing Services By Lawyers provided by the European Bar Association). The lack of regulation determines the lack of a clear definition of the concept. For better understanding the notion, we can refer to the definition provided by the US National Institute of Technology Standards (NITS): clod computing is a model that makes available, when required, the access on line to configurable resources that can be procured and delivered with minimum of effort and interaction with the service provider. Cloud computing can be public, hybrid or private in accordance with the functionality characteristics. Giving the easy access to information saved in cloud, it becomes arguable if cloud computing is compatible or not with Client-Attorney privilege provided by art. 6 of the Statute of the profession of lawyer: the Client –Attorney relationship is based on honesty, trust, loyalty and confidentiality. In accordance with the same regulation the professional secret concerns all kind of information entrusted by the client to his lawyer for legal assistance and all the drafted documents that provide privileged information. Using cloud computing services in accordance with Client – Attorney legal privilege should be subject to legal regulation. For instance, in USA, in July 2013, in 13 States of 15 States, the Bar Associations adopted legal provisions for using the cloud computing services. The Bar Associations from Maine, New Jersey and New York provided that cloud computing service provider is obliged to guarantee the confidentiality of the information.


U.S. exports, which recently have been increasing, are still dominated by large firms. According to one study, only 10 percent of the total U.S. export business is conducted by small companies, in spite of the vast export opportunities that exist. That same study further reports that of those small firms that do export, only 6 to 7 percent of their sales are derived from overseas, as compared to 10 to 15 percent for their counterparts from Japan and Germany. This situation is especially disappointing because small‐ and mid‐sized businesses possess the very attributes that: (1) substantially contribute to the U.S. economy by generating the largest number of new jobs; and (2) portend success in the global markets because these firms produce a wide variety of goods and services, often of exceptional quality. Additionally, small‐ and mid‐sized firms have a high degree of flexibility that allow them to profitably penetrate small markets and small niches in large markets, using strategies that are difficult for large companies to implement.


This paper examines the problem of evaporation of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) occurring at different places in the LNG supply chain. Evaporation losses in the LNG supply chain are one of the key factors for LNG safety, technical and economic assessment. LNG is stored and transported in tanks as a cryogenic liquid, i.e. as a liquid at a temperature below its boiling point at near atmospheric pressure. Due to heat entering the cryogenic tank during storage and transportation, a part of the LNG in the tank continuously evaporates creating a gas called Boil-Off Gas (BOG), which changes the quality of LNG over time. The general methods of handling and utilization of the Boil-Off Gas at different points in the LNG supply chain are presented. Attention is given to the issue of LNG energy content transferred during loading and unloading of LNG tankers, as well as to the Boil-Off Gas generated by evaporation of the cargo during maritime transport. The results presented in the paper have been derived from the scientifi research project 250 - 2502209 - 2366 "Management of Ship Power Systems under Fault Conditions and Failure" supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia.


The present tutorial review reports on the synthetic approaches for the formation of "polyoxothiometalate" compounds with special emphasis on the unique reactivity of the preformed sulfur-containing cationic building blocks {Mo(2)O(2)S(2)}(2+) and {Mo(3)S(4)}(4+) toward polyoxometalate building blocks. Such simple chemical systems, based on chemical and structural complementarities between ionic reactive moieties have led to the synthesis of a series of relevant clusters with unrivalled large nuclearity structural arrangements, such as loops, triangles, squares and boxes. Specific reaction parameters and considerations will be pointed out showing that a deliberate pure inorganic supramolecular chemistry based on weak interactions, flexibility and dynamic is possible with polyoxometalates.


By combining data from multiple sources, we model supply and demand of strawberry in Mexico for the 1970-2013 period. The main purpose of the study is to measure transmission of prices in this sector. Producer prices, wholesaler prices, exporter prices, and consumer prices are components of the model. Our three-stage least squares regression results show, consistent with the literature, that the pass-through of price changes is imperfect; that is, a price change at the producer level is not fully transmitted to domestic consumers and exporters. (Dickey-Fuller Augmented and Ljung-Box tests were performed to ensure efficiency of estimators.) Furthermore, a change in producer prices has a higher impact on the domestic market than in the exports market, in percentage basis. However, higher price mark-ups in the export market compared to domestic market's make exporting more attractive to Mexican strawberry producers. Results of this study may have important implications as both supply and exports of strawberry from Mexico have experienced high growth in the last decade, with more than 90% of strawberry being exported to the U.S. According the Mexican Department of Agriculture, volume harvested of strawberry grew 2.14 times from 2003 to 2014 while exports did 2.88 times.


Based on the time-dependent deformation behavior of solder alloy 63Sn-37Pb at room temperature, a damage-coupled unified visco-plastic multi-axial fatigue model and its failure criterion were proposed. In the evolution equation of damage for the model, the time-dependent effect of damage was taken into account. The model was used to predict the fatigue life under different loading paths. The comparison between the predicted and experimental results demonstrated that the time-dependent failure model can simulate the deformation behavior and predict the fatigue life well under different nonproportional strain paths.


Triazole-bridged benzoheterazole dendrimers with a bisphenol/benzophenone core unit have been synthesized by click chemistry via a convergent approach. The optical properties of the benzoheterazole dendrimers and their modulation under the influence of the dendritic environment are investigated. All the synthesized benzoheterazole dendrimers show antioxidant properties comparable to those of the standards, viz: gallic acid and ascorbic acid, when tested by DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging methods. Higher generation dendrimers exhibit superior antioxidant activity than the lower generation dendrimers due to the presence of a higher number of 1,2,3-triazole and benzophenone units. The therapeutic efficacy of the benzoheterazole dendrimers in inhibiting the growth of the A549 cancer cell increases as the dendritic generation increases. Our study shows that the inhibition of cell proliferation is dose and time dependent. MTT assay, cell viability, cell counting, and clonogenic assay indicate that the benzoheterazole dendrimers inhibit the growth of cancer cells, as revealed by reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial membrane potential studies. Morphological changes of the cancer cell line after treatment with the benzoheterazole dendrimers showed the typical features of cell death cell shrinkage and reduction in the number of cancer cells.


This paper summarises results of dimensionless identity experiments in JT-60U and JET, aimed at the comparison of the H-mode pedestal and ELM behaviour in the two devices. Given their similar size, dimensionless matched plasmas are also similar in their dimensional parameters (in particular a is the same in JET and JT-60U). Power and density scans were carried out at two values of Ip, providing a q scan (q95=3.1 and 5.1) with fixed (and matched) field. Contrary to expectations, a dimensionless match between the two devices was quite difficult to achieve. pped in JT-60U is lower than in JET and, at low q, the pedestal pressure of JT-60U with a Type I ELMy edge is matched in JET only in the Type III ELM regime. At q95=5.1, a dimensionless match in ρ*, ν* and βp,ped is obtained with Type I ELMs, but only with low-power JET H-modes. These results motivated a closer investigation of experimental conditions in the two devices, to identify possible "hidden" physics that prevents obtaining a good match of pedestal values over a large range of plasmas parameters. Ripple-induced fast ion losses of the large bore plasma used in JT-60U for the similarity experiments are identified as the main difference with JET. The magnitude of the JT-60U ripple losses is sufficient to induce counter-toroidal rotation in co-injected plasma. The influence of ripple losses was demonstrated at q95=5.1: reducing ripple losses by ~2 (from 4.3 to 1.9MW) by replacing Positive with Negative Neutral Beam injection at ~ constant Pin, increased pped in JT-60U, providing a good match to full power JET H-modes. At the same time, the counter-toroidal rotation decreased. Physics mechanisms relating ripple losses to pedestal performance are not yet identified, and the possible role of velocity shear in the pedestal MHD stability, as well as the possible influence of ripple on thermal ion transport are briefly discussed. Ripple losses in the ITER Q=10 reference scenario are negligible, and should not affect the plasma rotation. Although ITER plasmas will rotate at ~1/10 of the frequency of typical JET H-modes, results so far do not indicate that this should have a large effect on the pedestal MHD stability. On the other hand, the possible effect of ripple on thermal transport may deserve more attention, since the ripple magnitude of ITER is intermediate between that of JET and JT-60U.


Ultrasound technology offers valuable information when used as a diagnostic tool during a pregnancy at risk for complications. Its use has expanded greatly to uncomplicated pregnancies as a result of expectant parents' desire to see their baby or to know its gender. Many women are having ultrasounds without being given factual information regarding the purposes, risks, and/or benefits of this procedure. Decisions regarding ultrasound sonography could have a significant physical or emotional impact on the pregnancy, and informed decision making can take place only when the patient is properly educated. Issues regarding ultrasound benefits, safety, controversies, and information helpful to nurse practitioners involved in sonography are addressed in this article.


At present, new technology affects daily life in both direct and indirect ways. Internet technology can connect people around the world through social networks. It can facilitate online shopping or e-commerce, which is the popular culture of today business. Contents provided in the online shopping must be in the form that customer can interact with, i.e., it must be converted from analog data to digital information. For apparel or clothing business, only picture and information of the dresses, such as size, color, etc., may not be enough, since the customer did not know whether it will fit their bodies or not. To make sure that the dress they wanted to buy fit their body, the body size of the customers must be known. With the known body size, generating the 3D model of the customer to try on the 3D virtual model of the dress is possible, and the decision to buy is possible. There are many ways to find the exact body size and generate a 3D model of the customers i.e. using 3D scanner, using Photogrammetry technique (merging many photographs of the customers' bodies to create the 3d model) or generating 3D model with known information using 3d computer graphic software such as Autodesk Maya, 3D max. The techniques mentioned above have some drawback because it required either an expensive device or expert to create a 3D model which may take a long time. Therefore in this research, we present the technique using marker-based Augmented Reality to acquire the shape of the objects. By wrapping the markers around the surface of the object that we want to measure, each marker's position can be identified, and when combined, the shape and sizes of the object can be created. This technique takes a shorter time than other method and does not require any sophisticated device but still give good results. We separate the experiment into three groups, group one, testing the concept with five objects with different sizes and shapes with one row markers and group two, testing cylindrical objects with four row markers, and group three, testing with a mannequin to find the shape of human's body. we have found that the shape and size of the objects that we have created are very close to the real one with the maximum error of less than 5%. It possible to generate the whole 3D object which can be adjusted to support virtual fitting room.


ABSTRACT The double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-dependent protein kinase PKR is thought to mediate a conserved antiviral pathway by inhibiting viral protein synthesis via the phosphorylation of the alpha subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2α). However, little is known about the data related to the lower vertebrates, including fish. Recently, the identification of PKR-like, or PKZ, has addressed the question of whether there is an orthologous PKR in fish. Here, we identify the first fish PKR gene from the Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus (PoPKR). PoPKR encodes a protein that shows a conserved structure that is characteristic of mammalian PKRs, having both the N-terminal region for dsRNA binding and the C-terminal region for the inhibition of protein translation. The catalytic activity of PoPKR is further evidence that it is required for protein translation inhibition in vitro. PoPKR is constitutively transcribed at low levels and is highly induced after virus infection. Strikingly, PoPKR overexpression increases eIF2α phosphorylation and inhibits the replication of Scophthalmus maximus rhabdovirus (SMRV) in flounder embryonic cells, whereas phosphorylation and antiviral effects are impaired in transfected cells expressing the catalytically inactive PKR-K421R variant, indicating that PoPKR inhibits virus replication by phosphorylating substrate eIF2α. The interaction between PoPKR and eIF2α is demonstrated by coimmunoprecipitation assays, and the transfection of PoPKR-specific short interfering RNA further reveals that the enhanced eIF2α phosphorylation is catalyzed by PoPKR during SMRV infection. The current data provide significant evidence for the existence of a PKR-mediated antiviral pathway in fish and reveal considerable conservation in the functional domains and the antiviral effect of PKR proteins between fish and mammals.


In this paper, the fading properties of satellite-to-earth propagation channels are predicted using different Markov models. The proposed methods are validated and evaluated using mobile satellite link measurements data at typical mobile user environments. Compared with multi-states Markov models and traditional hidden Markov model, a better match between simulated and measured data shows that the non-stationary hidden Markov model predicts most satisfactorily the first and second order statistics of propagation properties. Besides, the proposed Markov models can be applied to evaluate the performance of error probability using coherent QPSK modulation schemes. This simple and efficient method extends the applicability of the Markov model approach in propagation channel modeling for satellite mobile communication services.


Background: A pregnant woman's psychological health is a significant predictor of postpartum outcomes. The Antenatal Psychosocial Health Assessment (ALPHA) form incorporates 15 risk factors associated with poor postpartum outcomes of woman abuse, child abuse, postpartum depression and couple dysfunction. We sought to determine whether health care providers using the ALPHA form detected more antenatal psychosocial concerns among pregnant women than providers practising usual prenatal care. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 4 communities in Ontario. Family physicians, obstetricians and midwives who see at least 10 prenatal patients a year enrolled 5 eligible women each. Providers in the intervention group attended an educational workshop on using the ALPHA form and completed the form with enrolled women. The control group provided usual care. After the women delivered, both groups of providers identified concerns related to the 15 risk factors on the ALPHA form for each patient and rated the level of concern. The primary outcome was the number of psychosocial concerns identified. Results were controlled for clustering. Results: There were 21 (44%) providers randomly assigned to the ALPHA group and 27 (56%) to the control group. A total of 227 patients participated: 98 (43%) in the ALPHA group and 129 (57%) in the control group. ALPHA group providers were more likely than control group providers to identify psychosocial concerns (odds ratio [OR] 1.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–3.0; p = 0.02) and to rate the level of concern as "high" (OR 4.8, 95% CI 1.1–20.2; p = 0.03). ALPHA group providers were also more likely to detect concerns related to family violence (OR 4.8, 95% CI 1.9–12.3; p = 0.001). Interpretation: Using the ALPHA form helped health care providers detect more psychosocial risk factors for poor postpartum outcomes, especially those related to family violence. It is a useful prenatal tool, identifying women who would benefit from additional support and interventions.


NIMASTEP is a dedicated numerical software developed by us, which allows one to integrate the osculating motion (using Cartesian coordinates) in a Newtonian approach of an object considered as a point-mass orbiting a homogeneous central body that rotates with a constant rate around its axis of smallest inertia. The code can be applied to objects such as particles, artificial or natural satellites, or space debris. The central body can be either any terrestrial planet of the solar system, any dwarf-planet, or even an asteroid. In addition, very many perturbations can be taken into account, such as the combined third-body attraction of the Sun, the Moon, or the planets, the direct solar radiation pressure (with the central body shadow), the non-homogeneous gravitational field caused by the non-sphericity of the central body, and even some thrust forces. The simulations were performed using different integration algorithms. Two additional tools were integrated in the software package; the indicator of chaos MEGNO and the frequency analysis NAFF. NIMASTEP is designed in a flexible modular style and allows one to (de)select very many options without compromising the performance. It also allows one to easily add other possibilities of use. The code has been validated through several tests such as comparisons with numerical integrations made with other softwares or with semi-analytical and analytical studies. The various possibilities of NIMASTEP are described and explained and some tests of astrophysical interest are presented. At present, the code is proprietary but it will be released for use by the community in the near future. Information for contacting its authors and (in the near future) for obtaining the software are available on the web site http://www.fundp.ac.be/en/research/projects/ page_view/10278201/


Previous research has found that on-farm income variability helps determine off-farm labor supply. However, unobserved heterogeneity of farms or regions may have biased earlier results. In this study, we use an exogenous increase in Federal crop insurance subsidies as a natural experiment to identify the importance of risk in off-farm labor supply. The subsidy increases induced greater participation in crop insurance programs and thereby reduced farmers' financial risks. By merging county-level crop insurance participation data with farm-level Agricultural Census data from 1992 and 1997 we can compare the off-farm labor decisions of individual farms before and after the subsidy and thereby control for unobserved heterogeneity. Unlike previous studies, we find that on-farm risk does not affect the labor allocation decisions of farm households.


Macrophages use diverse strategies to kill or restrict intracellular pathogens. Some of these strategies involve the deprivation of bacteria from (micro)nutrients such as transition metals, and the bacteria intoxication through metal accumulation. Little is known about the chemical warfare between Mycobacterium marinum, a close relative of the human pathogen M. tuberculosis, and its hosts. Here we use the professional phagocyte Dictyostelium discoideum to investigate the role of Zn during M. marinum infection. We show that M. marinum infection induces the accumulation of Zn inside the Mycobacterium-containing vacuole (MCV), achieved by the induction and recruitment of the D. discoideum Zn efflux pumps ZntA and ZntB. In cells lacking the ZntA detoxifying transporter there is further attenuation of M. marinum growth, possibly due to a compensatory efflux of Zn into the MCV. This efflux is presumably carried out by ZntB, the main Zn transporter in endosomes and phagosomes. Counterintuitively, M. marinum growth is also impaired in zntB KO cells, where MCVs accumulate less Zn. We also demonstrate that M. marinum senses toxic levels of Zn and responds by upregulating its Zn exporter CtpC, which supports bacteria survival under these restrictive conditions. Attenuation of M. marinum intracellular proliferation in zntA and zntB KO cells is accentuated in the absence of CtpC, confirming that mycobacteria face noxious levels of Zn. Altogether, we show for the first time that M. marinum infection induces a deleterious Zn elevation in D. discoideum, which is counteracted by the bacteria with the induction of its Zn exporter CtpC.


Fused quartz granules (d50=19 μm) were used as raw material, and Gd2O3-Nd2O3 (1:1, in mass) was used as additive with dosages of 1% (in mass, similarly hereinafter), 2% and 3%. Fused quartz ceramic materials were fabricated in reduction atmosphere at 1300 °C, 1350 °C and 1400 °C for 1 h. The apparent porosity, bending strength and thermal expansion ratios of the samples were examined and the samples were further analysed by means of XRD and SEM. The results showed that the sample sintered at each temperature with 3% Gd2O3-Nd2O3 had the lowest apparent porosity, the highest bending strength and more compact microstructure. This indicated that 3% Gd2O3-Nd2O3 was helpful to sintering of fused quartz ceramic materials. The results of XRD and thermal expansion ratio analysis showed that 3% Gd2O3-Nd2O3 compound additive had better effect on inhibiting crystallization of the samples sintered at 1300 °C and 1350 °C, but had a little effect on inhibiting crystallization of the sample sintered at 1400 °C.


Effective attention to information may play a prominent role in consumer choice for energy-intensive services and it may simply be a function of receiving timely information when consumption takes place. This paper investigates whether and why the timing of utility bills leads to salience bias in heat energy consumption. In Germany, the 12-month billing period varies across buildings with a significant share of buildings receiving bills during the summer months, when the salience of heating costs is absent or low. I exploit this large-scale natural experiment in utility billing cycles at the building level to identify the salience effect of costs on energy consumption and the underlying heterogeneity in the average treatment effect. I find new evidence for consumer inattention to energy costs: consumers that are billed for heating during off-winter months demand more heat energy annually. Results suggest that households are paying attention to their heating costs in the first three months of the 12-month billing period. As a result, bills immediately before the winter heating season are most effective, allowing ample opportunity to adjust consumption. I show that salience bias in consumption is persistent and pervasive – affecting households in all regions and building/technology type. Engaging energy users with salient bills, not necessarily more frequent, has the potential to reduce energy consumption in the residential sector significantly. This paper further examines whether enduring differences in consumer inattention to energy costs had a long-run impact on thermal efficiency investments by building owners – with implications for the energy-efficiency gap.


We consider the differentiation of the value function for parametric optimization problems. Such problems are ubiquitous in Machine Learning applications such as structured support vector machines, matrix factorization and min-min or minimax problems in general. Existing approaches for computing the derivative rely on strong assumptions of the parametric function. Therefore, in several scenarios there is no theoretical evidence that a given algorithmic differentiation strategy computes the true gradient information of the value function. We leverage a well known result from convex duality theory to relax the conditions and to derive convergence rates of the derivative approximation for several classes of parametric optimization problems in Machine Learning. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach in several experiments, including non-smooth parametric functions. Even in settings where other approaches are applicable, our duality based strategy shows a favorable performance.


The non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) nevirapine (NVP), efavirenz (EFV), and delaviridine (DLV) are increasingly being used to treat HIV infection. Studies have shown excellent tolerance and efficacy and less development of virological resistance with HIV regimens that include NNRTIs. Nevertheless, abnormalities in liver enzymes are common in patients with HIV infection, and there are multiple etiologies for these abnormalities, including drug toxicity, viral hepatitis, opportunistic infections, and substance abuse. In particular, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can result in hepatotoxicity through a variety of mechanisms, such as mitochondrial toxicity, lipodystrophy syndrome, and steatohepatitis. The NNRTIs have been most frequently implicated in hypersensitivity reactions. NVP-containing HAART regimens may be more hepatotoxic than are those with EFV and DLV, at least for the first 6 weeks, although the data are still contradictory. Coinfection with hepatitis C and B viruses appears to significantly increase the risk of toxicity, and therefore all patients should be screened for viral hepatitis prior to commencing HAART. Close monitoring of transaminases is suggested in all patients commencing HAART, especially those with preexisting liver disease and coinfection with viral hepatitis.


The goal of this study was to characterize the respiratory tract toxicity of acrolein, including nasal and pulmonary effects, in adult male F344 rats. Animals underwent whole-body exposure to 0, 0.02, 0.06, 0.2, 0.6, or 1.8 ppm acrolein for 6 hr/day, five days/week for up to 65 exposure days (13 exposure weeks). Respiratory tract histopathology was evaluated after 4, 14, 30, and 65 exposure days, as well as 60 days after the end of the 13 week exposure. Acrolein exposure was associated with reduced body weight gain. Rats exposed to ≥ 0.06 ppm acrolein had depressed terminal body weights when compared with air-exposed controls. Histologic evaluation of the nasal cavity showed olfactory epithelial inflammation and olfactory neuronal loss (ONL) following exposure to 1.8 ppm acrolein. Moderately severe ONL in the dorsal meatus and ethmoid turbinates occurred within four days while septal involvement developed with ongoing exposure. A rostral-caudal gradient in lesion severity was noted, with the anterior portion of the nasal cavity being more severely affected. Acrolein exposure was associated with inflammation, hyperplasia, and squamous metaplasia of the respiratory epithelium. The lateral wall was amongst the most sensitive locations for these responses and increased respiratory epithelial cell proliferation occurred at this site following 4 to 30 days of exposure to ≥ 0.6 ppm acrolein. The NOAEL for nasal pathology seen in this study was 0.2 ppm acrolein.


Purpose To compare the efficacy of passive drainage (PD) and repeated fluid-air (FA) exchange for removing emulsified silicone oil (SO) droplets. Methods Twenty rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) patients who underwent primary pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) with SO tamponade were randomly and evenly divided into two groups for PD and FA exchange. Once the bulk of SO was removed, the first 2 mL of the washout fluid was collected, and then, another 2 mL of the washout fluid was collected after PD or FA exchange. The size and number of SO droplets in the washout fluid were measured using a Coulter counter (Multisizer 3, Beckman Coulter, Indianapolis, IN, USA). The efficiencies of FA exchange and PD for removing emulsified SO were compared. Results The number of SO droplets decreased significantly after FA exchange and PD. The decrease in the number of droplets was statistically significant for larger droplets (>4 µm) with PD and for all droplet sizes with FA exchange. The decrease in the number of SO droplets of <4 μm was significantly greater with FA exchange than with PD. However, at the end of the procedure, the overall number and size distribution of SO droplets were similar for both procedures. Conclusions PD and FA exchange reduced the number of residual emulsified SO droplets after SO tamponade efficiently. FA exchange may have some advantages over PD in removing small droplets.


Passive network mapping has often been proposed as an approach to maintain up-to-date information on networks between active scans. This paper presents a comparison of active and passive mapping on an operational network. On this network, active and passive tools found largely disjoint sets of services and the passive system took weeks to discover the last 15% of active services. Active and passive mapping tools provided different, not complimentary information. Deploying passive mapping on an enterprise network does not reduce the need for timely active scans due to non-overlapping coverage and potentially long discovery times


The design and optimization methodology of a thermally conductive polyphenylene sulphide (PPS) polymer staggered pin fin heat sink, for an advanced natural convection cooled microprocessor application, are described using existing analytical equations. The geometric dependence of heat dissipation and the relationships between the pin fin height, pin diameter, horizontal spacing, and pin fin density for a fixed base area and excess temperature are discussed. Experimental results of a pin finned thermally conductive PPS heat sink in natural convection indicate substantially high thermal performance. Numerical results substantiate analytical modeling results for heat sinks within the Aihara et al. fin density range. The cooling rates and coefficient of thermal performance, COP/sub T/, that relates cooling capability to the energy invested in the formation of the heat sink, has been determined for such heat sinks and compared with conventional aluminum heat sinks.


Oxetanes are versatile building blocks in drug-related synthesis to induce property-modulating effects. Whereas related oxiranes are widely used in coupling chemistry with carbon dioxide (CO2) to afford value-added commodity chemicals, oxetane/CO2 couplings remain extremely limited despite the recent advances in the synthesis of these four-membered heterocycles. Here we report an effective one-pot three-component reaction (3CR) strategy for the coupling of (substituted) oxetanes, amines and CO2 to afford a variety of functionalized carbamates with excellent chemoselectivity and good yields. The process is mediated by an aluminium-based catalyst under relatively mild conditions and the developed catalytic methodology can be applied to the formal synthesis of two pharmaceutically relevant carbamates with the 3CR being a key step.


In recent years, the shared mobility service has increased in many countries across the world because its low cost and several shared-use mobility applications on mobile devices. Commonly, if a ride is shared between people with similar preferences, users likely feel both more comfortable and safer. In this context, the main goal of this article is to classify users with similar preferences, in automatic manner, to improve user's quality of experience in ridesharing service. To obtain initial data, subjective tests are carried out using questionnaires and their results are used to determine ridesharing profiles. Then, some basic user profile information is extracted from Online Social Networks (OSN) to determine an user profile based on preferences in ridesharing service. The user profile classification is performed through different machine learning algorithms, which use as input the data extracted from OSN. Two case studies of shared-mobility are treated, (i) sharing a ride with a passenger with a similar hobby [2], and (ii) sharing a ride with people that support an opposite football teams. In this work, a novel contribution is the use of Hybrid Discriminative Restricted Boltzmann Machines (HDRBM) technique for classification, which results overcomes other algorithms, such as Random Forest, SVM and DRBM. The experimental results presented a correctly classified instance of 96:9% and 97:3% for the cases of sharing a ride with people with similar hobby and support different football team, respectively. Finally, a Recommendation System (RS) is proposed, which efficiency is compared with a basic RS, obtaining a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0:97 and 0:79, respectively.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of research--the study of the relationship between adaptation of the cardiovascular system to physical activity and the autonomic newous system in young women with low blood pressure.

METHODS
Evaluated test Ruffier index Kerdo women-university students aged 18-35 years, engaged in physical culture within the educational process. Compare the 69 women with low blood pressure (SBP 61-99 mmHg) and 35 women with normal blood pressure (SBP 120-129 mmHg). Index Ruffier groups did not differ in average and adequate "good result". In the group of women with low blood pressure showed a reduction in fitness (Ruffier-index of 10 or higher) when sympathetic activation. Reduced recorded in 14.5% (10 cases), which is significantly more than the parasympathetic activation--0 cases when p = 0.003. Analysis of the dynamics of SBP, DBP and heart rate during the Ruffier test showed that low blood pressure after 1 minute rest in SBP and DBP were higher than baseline.

CONCLUSIONS
According to the test Ruffier in young women with low blood pressure and sympathicotonia in 14.5% of cases there is a lack of adaptation to physical stress. When low blood pressure with vagotonia --only good and average adaptation to physical stress. Screening test of physical activity in young women with low blood pressure are not quickens the pulse, but leads to a slight increase in SBP and DBP.


Halite–crystals produced in solar salts Works of Sfax Saline (E.S of TUNISIA), more often, contain fluid inclusions which fill inter– and intra–crystalline cavities and represent from 3 to 5 % in mass. With the sole aim of quantifying the impact of fluid inclusions on chemical quality of NaCl crystals, we proceeded by a comparison of the analytical results obtained from the analysis of primary salt samples with those obtained upon the same samples cleared out as much as possible of their inclusions by grinding in ethanol. The results obtained for bromine, potassium, magnesium and heavy metals (Cu, Mn, Pb, Zn and Cd) show that these inclusions have a chemical composition similar to that of mother brines. The decrease of salt -crystals size, by washing, using saturated brines, largely contributes to the reduction of impurities in alimentary sea salt.


In high dimensional settings, sparse structures are crucial for efficiency, both in term of memory, computation and performance. It is customary to consider ℓ1 penalty to enforce sparsity in such scenarios. Sparsity enforcing methods, the Lasso being a canonical example, are popular candidates to address high dimension. For efficiency, they rely on tuning a parameter trading data fitting versus sparsity. For the Lasso theory to hold this tuning parameter should be proportional to the noise level, yet the latter is often unknown in practice. A possible remedy is to jointly optimize over the regression parameter as well as over the noise level. This has been considered under several names in the literature: Scaled-Lasso, Square-root Lasso, Concomitant Lasso estimation for instance, and could be of interest for uncertainty quantification. In this work, after illustrating numerical difficulties for the Concomitant Lasso formulation, we propose a modification we coined Smoothed Concomitant Lasso, aimed at increasing numerical stability. We propose an efficient and accurate solver leading to a computational cost no more expensive than the one for the Lasso. We leverage on standard ingredients behind the success of fast Lasso solvers: a coordinate descent algorithm, combined with safe screening rules to achieve speed efficiency, by eliminating early irrelevant features.


The research goal is to study the spread of completed and uncompleted suicides in the Saratov region during the period of 2001-2010, and influence of unemployment and alcohol abuse on suicidal behavior of the population in the most unfavourable areas of the region. To conduct the research elaborated questionnaires, describing suicidal and drug situations in the Saratov region during 2001-2010, and the reports of the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Migration in the Saratov region were used. Results: Areas with the highest rate of suicidal activity during 2001-2010 were identified (Balakovo, Engels, Dukhovnitsky, Pugachev, Perelub and Arkadak). In each of these areas correlation between the level of suicide and alcoholism and unemployment levels of the population were established. The research results allowed identifying some predictors of suicidal behavior for the specific area. These predictors will be included in «The Map of the predictors of suicide risk in the Saratov region». It improves assistance in suicidal situations and reduces suicides


: Dopamine(DA), the most widely distributed in the nervous system and functionally important chemical signal, is synthesized in DA-ergic neurons from L-tyrosine by means of two enzymes, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC). Apart from the enzymes, specific DA transporter is an attribute of DA-ergic neurons. In the mid eighties of the last century, in addition to DA-ergic neurons, those expressing only one enzyme, TH or AADC, have been discovered. These "monoenzymatic" neurons occurred to be more numerous and more widely distributed in the brain compared to DA-ergic neurons that manifests their wide involvement to the brain functioning. It has been demonstrated that the monoenzymatic neurons expressing complementary enzymes of DA synthesis produce this neurotransmitter in cooperation. In this case, L-tyrosine is transformed to L-DOPA in TH containing neurons that is followed by L-DOPA release and uptake from the intercellular space to AADC containing neurons for DA synthesis. Moreover, the L-DOPA uptake to DA-ergic or serotoninergic neurons results either in the increase or the onset of DA synthesis in addition to serotonin, respectively. The expression of the enzymes of DA synthesis in non-dopaminergic neurons is one of the adaptive reactions serving to compensate the functional insufficiency of DA-ergic neurons. For instance, hyperprolactinemia and the deficiency of DA, prolactin-inhibiting hormone, which is developed under degeneration of DA-ergic neurons of the arcuate nucleus, are compensated with time due to the increase of the number of monoenzymatic neurons and cooperative synthesis of DA in the nucleus. It is supposed that the same compensatory cooperative synthesis of DA is turned on under the degeneration of DA-ergic neurons of the nigrostriatal system that is manifested by the appearance of non-dopaminergic neurons expressing enzymes of DA synthesis in the deafferentated striatum. The expression of the enzymes of DA synthesis in non-dopaminergic neurons is under the control by intercellular signals, catecholamines, neurotrophic (growth) factors and, perhaps, hormones. Thus, non-dopaminergic monoenzymatic neurons expressing enzymes of DA synthesis produce this neurotransmitter in cooperation that is a compensatory reaction under functional insufficiency of DA-ergic neurons, in neurodegenerative diseases, hyperprolactinemia and Parkinson's disease, in particular.


Background Acute haemodynamic measurements can be used for AV delay (AVD) optimisation of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT). It is uncertain whether non-invasive measurements are as reliable as those measured invasively. Methods 37 patients with CRT-P or CRT-D device (86% male, mean age 64 years) had AVD optimisation performed using both invasive and non-invasive systolic blood pressure (SBP) and LV dp/dtmax Results There was good concordance between optima obtained using non-invasive SBP, invasive LV and aortic SBP: SDD between 5.7 and 14.1 ms, R2 between 0.86 and 0.95 (Table 1). In contrast, the optima derived from maximising LV dp/dtmax did not agree as well with the other optima: SDD between 28.1 and 29.8 ms, R2 between 0.58 and 0.65. Of the comparisons in all 36 patients, those between LV dp/dtmax and non-invasive SBP (r2 = 0.58) and between LV dp/dtmax and invasive LV SBP (r2 = 0.62) were worse (p = 0.0067 and 0.013 respectively) than the comparison between non-invasive SBP and invasive LV SBP (r2 = 0.88). Test re-test reproducibility was better for invasive and non-invasive SBP; invasive LV SBP (SDD 16.8ms, coefficient of variation COV 10.1) non-invasive SBP (SDD 18.3, COV 11.3), compared to invasive LV dp/dtmax (SDD 23.6, COV 14.6). Abstract 41 Table 1 Comparison of AV optima determined using nvasive and non-invasive haemodynamic variables Conclusions In this study, we demonstrate good agreement between AVD optimisation performed using non-invasive and invasive systolic blood pressure. LV dp/dtmax showed relatively poor correlation with the AVD optima determined using SBP which is most likely due to a larger noise component in LV dp/dtmax measurements.


Even if amphidromous fish species contribute most to the diversity of fish communities in the tropical insular rivers, their biological cycle remain poorly known. For the first time, the otolith elemental composition and microstructure of two ancestral gobioids, Rhyacichthys guilberti and Protogobius attiti, were investigated to describe their biological cycle and pelagic larval duration (PLD). The otolith analysis using a femtosecond laser ablation coupled to an inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometer (fs-LA-ICP-MS) revealed an amphidromous life history for R. guilberti and it suggested a progressive habitat shift from a marine habitat to a freshwater environment for P. attiti. For the first time, an endemic species, P. attiti, showed longer and more variable PLD (55.2 ± 13.5 days) than did a widespread one (R. guilberti: ~30 days). These results need to be confirmed by analysing more samples but suggest that factors other than the PLD control endemism and dispersal processes. In association with this first description of the biological cycle for both species, such an approach is a prerequisite for the management and conservation of both patrimonial species.


Introduction: Today, huge quantity of medical journals with indescribable quality, have confused health researchers while choosing a suitable journal to publish their scientific results. It seems that quality measuring criteria of journals could have solved this problem to some extent. In this study, we studied quality of journals of obstetrics and gynecology field indexed in the valid databases, and then based on indices of ranking journals. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study, was conducted in May 1392 by method of assessment. Information about all obstetrics and gynecology journals indexed in the database Scopus, were collected from the databases ISI, Pubmed and Scopus. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used for analysis data. Minitab 17 and SPSS 22 were used for data analysis. P value≤0.05 was considered to be significant. Result: Of the148 Journals of obstetrics and gynecology field which were found in the Scopus database, 89 journals (60.14) were indexed in the Pubmed and 78 (52.70) journals were indexed in the ISI. About 42.57 of this journals publish in England and USA. The mean impact factor, SJR, and Eigenfactor score of obstetrics and gynecology journals were 1.825±1.428, 0.459±0.495, and 0.00766±0.011, respectively. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was 0.895 (between impact factor and SJR), 0.819 (between impact factor and Eigenfactor score), and 0.801 (between SJR and Eigenfactor score). Conclusion: Our study showed significant association between considered indices of journals ranking: Impact Factor, Eigenfactor score and Scimago Journal Ranking, for journals in the field of obstetrics and gynecology which were indexed in ISI and Scopus databases. The results also showed that although Eigenfactor score and SJR can be better indices than Impact Factor, but considering impact factor cannot be ignored while choosing a proper journal in this discipline, due to its public acceptance in the scientific community, availability and ease of use.


Background

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are overused in patients with COPD despite recommendations since 2011 limiting their use to patients at high risk of exacerbation (GOLD Groups C and D).

Aim

To examine COPD medication use by patients before entering Phase III aclidinium studies.

Methods

Baseline data were pooled from the placebo and aclidinium arms of three, 6-month, placebo-controlled studies evaluating aclidinium mono- or combination therapy in patients with moderate-to-severe COPD, stratified to GOLD 2013 group using SGRQ total score (surrogate for CAT). Patients with asthma were excluded.

Results

Of 1787 patients with stable COPD (mean±SD: age 63.3±8.4 years, 63.0% male, 54.2±13.1% predicted FEV1), 56.3% were classified as low risk (Group A+B). The proportion of patients receiving ICS therapy (alone or combination) at baseline by GOLD group was assessed (Table); 41.3% and 43.5% of patients in Groups A and B, respectively, received ICS therapy (alone or combination). Overall, 93.8% patients had co-morbidities (range 91.3–98.1%), 5.7% prior history of pneumonia, 5.8 % diagnosed osteoporosis and 11.2% diabetes.

Conclusions

Prescribing patterns for patients with COPD did not reflect guidelines, with frequent ICS use in Groups A and B. Patients in all groups had co-morbidities potentially affected by ICS use; these need to be considered before prescribing ICSs to patients with COPD.

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Vitamin D is a very common prescribed drug for numerous indications. Due to scarce knowledge and poor awareness of the various formulations, preparations and dosages of Vitamin D, there are many chances of prescription errors, medication errors, product use issue and undesirable adverse drug reactions. We hereby detail case of 70-year-old ex-army gentleman reported to us with a history of lethargy, confusion, reduced appetite and gait imbalance since few days with a history of knee replacement surgery 2 years back. Medical history was not of much relevance before it was revealed that he was getting cholecalciferol injection with a strength of 600000 IU once a week for few months. He was detected to have very high serum vitamin D level and hypercalcemia. He was started on intravenous fluids, diuretics and glucocorticoids. In a few days, after effective treatment, the patient was discharged in a recovering stage and advised to stop intake calcium and vitamin D in any form. At his last follow up, after a few months of discharge, he had totally recovered.


Although cancers of the pancreatic body and tail are often advanced at the time of diagnosis, resection of localized tumors can result in long-term survival. A search of the computerized records of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) revealed 29 distal pan-reatectomies performed for pancreatic cancer from 1987 to 1991. Operative complications and survival data were available on all patients, and pathologic and staging information were retrieved on 21 patients, seven of whom had cancers other than pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Although 30-day mortality was high after distal pancreatectomy (21%), mean survival exceeded 1 year for patients with localized pancreatic adenocarcinoma and for those with histologies other than pancreatic cancer. Surgical resection should be offered to patients with lesions of the pancreatic body and tail when metastases are not demonstrated; survival will likely be prolonged when nodal or systemic metastases are absent. These recent DVA results from a wide variety of surgeons, hospital sizes, and university affiliations may more closely reflect the national experience with this operation in patients with cancer than do single institutional reports.


Suicide is a leading cause of death internationally. Prediction of the phenomenon has proved to be extremely difficult and results in this area have been modest. The objective of this pilot study was to assess the applicability of the Neural Network statistical procedure to suicidal data. The predictive ability of three statistical techniques (Logistic Regression, Discriminatory Analysis and Neural Networks) were compared in the ability to distinguish between suicides and attempts on the basis of a variety of variables. Although the Neural Network model expresses its full potential with large numbers, it has proved to be effective even in our limited sample. This suggests that neural networks may exhibit superior predictive capacity when the data set is enlarged. This technique may prove to be a useful additional tool in the field of suicide prediction and prevention.


Our primary objective is to assess the role of culture by linking college students' current consumption of fruits and vegetables with their produce consumption levels while with family. Using a Tobit model, we analyzed data from an online survey with college students. Family consumption of fruits was highly predictive of the individual's consumption of fruits. For each unit increase in the reported consumption of fruits (vegetables) with the family, the respondents' fruit (vegetable) consumption at school increased by 0.65 (0.30) units compared to the base consumption level of 1.95 (1.82) times of fruit intake per day.


This research project used Functional Measurement to examine how the
brand name of consumer products impacts intended purchasing decisions. Thirty undergraduate students tested actual products from three different product categories (crayons, tissues, and tortilla chips). Each product category consisted of three different brands; one with high brand value, one with medium, and one with low brand (generic) value. For each brand, there were five conditions: 1) the product with the correct brand name; 2) the product with a switched brand name; 3) the product with another switched brand name; 4) the product alone with no brand name; and 5) the brand name alone with no product. Participants were unaware that products had been switched. After trying each product, participants rated their likelihood to purchase on a 9-point Likert scale: 1 being "definitely would not buy" and
9 being "definitely would buy".Results revealed that perceptions of quality were dependent on both perceived product quality and brand name. Unexpectedly, results also showed that the strength of the brand equity effect is dependent on product type, e.g., chips showed the strongest brand effect. For most product categories, main effects and interactions were significant. Functional measurement analyses revealed that brand name effects were independent of product quality. In conclusion, the brand name associated with a product led people to evaluate quality of that product as either higher or lower depending on the strength of the brand name.


Recycling of residues from different industrial process as new raw materials has been studied by several institutions to be applied in the production of ceramic bricks, roof tile. The aim of this work is to study the potentiality of the residues from granite and kaolin industries as raw materials to obtain ceramic tile. The raw materials were fired at temperatures of 1100oC, 1120oC and 1150oC. After fired the specimens were submitted to a physical and mechanical tests, such as, linear shrinkage, mechanical resistance, water absorption and apparent density. The results show that the residues can be used in the composition of the paste to produce ceramic tiles.


Direct ultrafast laser photoinscription of transparent materials is a powerful technique for the development of embedded 3D photonics. This is particularly adaptable for astrophotonic devices when a number of inputs are required. The process relies essentially on volume fabrication of waveguiding structures in flexible 3D designs and refractive index contrast parameters adjustable for specific spectral ranges. This enables 3D geometry and thus avoids in-plane crossings of waveguides that can induce losses and cross talk in multi-telescope beam combiners. The additional novel capability of the technique allows for the fabrication of high aspect ratio nanostructures nonperturbatively sampling the optical field. Combining ultrafast laser micro- and nanoprocessing with engineered beams, we present here results for the development of chip-sized silica glass integrated robust 3D three-telescope beam combiners in the near-IR range, as well as embedded diffraction gratings, for phase closure analysis and spectro-interferometry applications in astronomy.


This paper proposes AEDA (An Easier Data Augmentation) technique to help improve the performance on text classification tasks. AEDA includes only random insertion of punctuation marks into the original text. This is an easier technique to implement for data augmentation than EDA method (Wei and Zou, 2019) with which we compare our results. In addition, it keeps the order of the words while changing their positions in the sentence leading to a better generalized performance. Furthermore, the deletion operation in EDA can cause loss of information which, in turn, misleads the network, whereas AEDA preserves all the input information. Following the baseline, we perform experiments on five different datasets for text classification. We show that using the AEDA-augmented data for training, the models show superior performance compared to using the EDA-augmented data in all five datasets. The source code is available for further study and reproduction of the results.


The California State University, Chico's assets are deteriorating. The existing mechanisms to improve the campus through the California State University (CSU) Capital Outlay program will do little to address the widespread degradation of the campus facilities. Through delegated authority, each campus is responsible for the welfare of its facilities; creating 23 separate approaches to facilities management and enabling a zero sum game for capital resources. The consequences of widespread facilities degradation is impacting student success and preventing both the system and individual campuses from focusing on its core responsibilities and ultimately its mission. While the CSU system appears to be aware of the theory of asset management and total cost of ownership, policies and practices indicate that there is a large gap between comprehension and implementation. This paper will analyze the existing CSU facilities management system utilizing two dynamic models to understand general system behavior, local impacts to the CSU, Chico campus and potential leverage points for improvement.


Oncogenic fusions of Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) define a subset of human lung adenocarcinomas. The 1st generation ALK inhibitor XALKORI ® (crizotinib) demonstrated impressive clinical benefit in ALK-fusion positive lung cancers and was approved by the FDA for the treatment of ALK-fusion positive NSCLC in 2011. However, as seen with most kinase inhibitors, patients treated with XALKORI eventually developed resistance to therapy. Acquired ALK kinase domain mutations and brain metastases are significant contributors to the relapse after XALKORI therapy. To date, multiple types of ALK kinase domain mutations have been identified in XALKORI refractory patients including ALKG1269A, ALKL1196M, ALKC1156Y, ALKL1152R, ALKF1174L, ALKS1206Y, ALK1151Tins and ALKG1202R, accounting for about 1/3 of patient samples tested. Currently, a number of 2nd generation ALK inhibitors are under development aiming to overcome XALKORI resistant mutations. Even though in preclinical models, some ALK mutants such as ALKG1202R and ALK1151Tins confer high-levels of resistance to almost all of the 2nd generation ALK inhibitors tested. Here we report PF-06463922, a novel ATP competitive small molecule inhibitor of ALK/ROS1, with potent and selective inhibitory activity against all known acquired XALKORI resistant mutations identified in patients. PF-06463922 is also capable of penetrating the blood brain barrier in preclinical animal models. In vitro, PF-06463922 demonstrated potent inhibition in catalytic activities of ALK and 8 different ALK mutant kinases in recombinant enzyme and cell based assays (cell IC50s = 1 to 65 nM). PF-06463922 also showed potent growth inhibitory activity and induced apoptosis in the NSCLC cells harboring either non-mutant ALK or mutant ALK fusions (IC50s = 1 to 30 nM). In vivo, PF-06463922 demonstrated marked cytoreductive activity in mice bearing tumor xenografts that express EML4-ALK, EML4-ALKL1196M, EML4-ALKG1269A, EML4-ALKG1202R or NPM-ALK at low nM free plasma concentrations. These effects were associated with significant inhibition in cellular Ki67 and increased cleaved-caspase3 levels in tumors. In addition, PF-06463922 achieved brain exposure of 20-30% of its plasma levels in mice, and significantly regressed the brain tumors and prolonged survival of mice bearing orthotopic EML4-ALK and EML4-ALKL1196M positive brain tumor implants. The antitumor efficacy of PF-06463922 was dose dependent and strongly correlated with inhibition of ALK phosphorylation and downstream signaling. Our data indicate that PF-06463922 is the most potent ALK inhibitor reported to date (to our knowledge, against both non-mutant or mutant ALK in cell assays), and it demonstrates great potential for treating ALK fusion positive cancers including patients who relapsed from XALKORI therapy due to various ALK kinase domain mutations and/or brain metastases. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):C253. Citation Format: Helen Y. Zou, Lars R. Engstrom, Qiuhua Li, Melissa West Lu, Ruth Wei Tang, Hui Wang, Konstantinos Tsaparikos, Jinwei Wang, Sergei Timofeevski, Dac M. Dinh, Hieu Lam, Justine Lam, Shinji Yamazaki, Wenyue Hu, Timothy Affolter, Patrick B. Lappin, Hovhannes Gukasyan, Nathan Lee, Jennifer M. Tursi, Ted W. Johnson, Valeria Fantin, Tod Smeal. PF-06463922, a novel brain-penetrating small molecule inhibitor of ALK/ROS1 with potent activity against a broad spectrum of ALK resistant mutations in preclinical models in vitro and in vivo. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2013 Oct 19-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):Abstract nr C253.


Abstract Logs of high-value eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) are commonly exported from the United States for production of veneer and lumber. Veneer logs are not debarked to minimize degradation of wood quality and reduce moisture loss. Thousand cankers disease (TCD) is caused by the walnut twig beetle (Pityophthorus juglandis Blackman) and the fungal pathogen, Geosmithia morbida M. Kolarik, E. Freeland, C. Utley and N. Tisserat sp. nov., which colonize the inner bark of Juglans species. Effective eradication of these organisms by heat or chemical fumigation treatment is required for walnut logs prior to export. Because vacuum steam is an effective and efficient means of heating round wood, its use in eliminating the TCD causal agents was evaluated using Juglans logs (12- to 44-cm small end diameter and 1.7- to 1.9-m length) fromTCD-symptomatic trees in Oregon and Washington State. Five replicate trials with three logs per load were conducted in a portable vacuum chamber to test two treatment schedules: 60°C for 60 min and 56°C for 30 min. Complete elimination of P. juglandis and G. morbida was achieved when using a minimum of 56°C at 5-cm targeted depth from bottom of bark furrow into the sapwood and held for 30 min. Treatment cycle time ranged from 298 to 576 min depending on log diameter and initial log temperature. Artificial inoculation of J. nigra trees with G. morbida within the TCD range in Pennsylvania was minimally successful in producing adequately colonized logs for experimental trials.


Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are among the most widely used contraceptive methods and users discontinue use despite its effectiveness due to different reasons. This study is aimed at determining the reasons for IUD discontinuation. A retrospective survey was conducted at Family Planning Clinic of University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, IUD - duration of use and reason(s) for removal was obtained using a proforma. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. A total of 1,961 women had IUD removal within the study period. Mean age and duration of use was 37.8 ±8.6 and 6.2±4.6 years, respectively. Their parity ranged from one to six and majority 528(26.9%) were 30-34 years of age. More than one-third 710(36.2%) had secondary level of education and were mainly grandmultipara. Commonest reasons for IUD discontinuation were side-effects 543 (27.6%) and client's preference 536(27.3%). About a fifth of them had early IUD discontinuation while majority 651(33.2%) used the device for four to ten years. Thus, IUDs are safe and well tolerated with side effects and client's preference as commonest reasons for its discontinuation. Providers should provide information on the side effects and its management at insertion knowing that the woman's choice is paramount.

 Key words: Intrauterine devices (IUDs), discontinuation, duration, reasons.


We experimentally study the morphology of a radially expanding sheet of liquid tin, formed by nanosecond-pulse Nd:YAG laser impact on a spherical microdroplet. Specifically, the sheet thickness profile and its time evolution are captured in detail over a range of laser-pulse energies and for two droplet sizes. Two complementary methods to determine this thickness are employed and shown to be in excellent agreement. All obtained thickness profiles collapse onto a single self-similar curve. Spatial integration of the thickness profiles allows us to determine the volume of the sheet. Remarkably, less than half of the initial amount of tin remains in the sheet under conditions relevant for industrial sources of extreme ultraviolet light, where these thin tin sheets serve as target material. Further analysis shows that the dominant fraction of the mass lost from the sheet during its expansion ends up as fine fragments. We propose that such mass loss can be minimized by producing the sheet targets on the shortest possible time scale. These findings may be particularly valuable for ongoing developments in state-of-the-art nanolithography.


Objective: is to determine the knowledge of nurses concerning implantation pacemaker for adults patients with cardiac rhythm disorders, to find out the relationship between nurses knowledge concerning implantation pacemaker for adult's patients with cardiac rhythm disorders and demographic characteristics.
Methodology: The study was performed November 2014 to June 2015. A convenience (non-probability) sample of the study consists of (100) nurses choose purposively who are working in Al-Nassirrhyia Heart Center (The data were collected the use of a questionnaire which were consisted of two parts (demographic data, nurses knowledge about pacemaker). Content validity of the questionnaire was determine through a panel of (13) experts. Reliability and validity of questionnaire was determined through test re-test (r= 0.82) of pilot study. The data collection process was performed of 15th of March until the 5th of May 2015.the data was analyzed through the application of descriptive statistical analysis that include (frequency, Percentages [%] and cumulative percent, Mean of scores ), and the application of inferential statistical analysis that included the person correlation coefficient.
Results: The result of study shows that the majority (49%) of the age group was (23-27) years old and most of the study sample (60%) was male. Most of them (52%) were single and (40%) was secondary school nursing and between parley sufficient and insufficient in monthly income their livings (93%) were urban, more of the study sample was working in coronary care unit (21%) and (11%) of them were have training course all of them inside of Iraq and most of the study sample have once course training and (80%) of them were employ in (1-5) years with (1-3) years of experience in cardiac unit (68%), mean of score are moderate on item (1) and high on the remaining items.
Conclusion: Nurse's knowledge was sufficient and good, There is a relationship between nurses knowledge and gender, residential area and work site.
Recommendation: There is a need for an orientation program for all new nurses. There is need for implement an active updated educational activities. Skills training to all the nurses concerning of pacemaker. Farther study is necessary in nurse's practices concerning implantation pacemaker in order to demonstrate more clearly.


The distributed alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm is one of the effective methods to solve the global consensus optimization problem. Considering the differences between the communication of intra-nodes and inter-nodes in multicore cluster, we propose a group-based asynchronous distributed ADMM (GAD-ADMM) algorithm: based on the traditional star topology network, the grouping layer is added. The workers are grouped according to the process allocation in nodes and model similarity of datasets, and the group local variables are used to replace the local variables to compute the global variable. The algorithm improves the communication efficiency of the system by reducing communication between nodes and accelerates the convergence speed by relaxing the global consistency constraint. Finally, the algorithm is used to solve the logistic regression problem in a multicore cluster. The experiments on the Ziqiang 4000 showed that the GAD-ADMM reduces the system time cost by 35 % compared with the AD-ADMM.


Background: Non-typhoidal salmonellae and serovars of Escherichia coli, Listeria, Shigella, and Campylobacter are among the most important food-borne bacterial agents. Objective: The aim of the present study was molecular detection of quinolone resistance in Salmonella spp. isolated from poultry products in Karaj, Iran, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Materials and Methods: Ninety samples of poultry products were collected from different brands and markets during September-December 2017. All samples were enriched in nutrient broth and Selenite F broth, and salmonellae were isolated by xylose lysine deoxycholate agar. The presence of specific genes of qnrA, qnrB, and qnrS was investigated employing PCR technique and subsequently, specific primers. Results: None of the 30 egg yolk samples had bacterial growth in the culture medium. In total, 29 (48.33%) out of 60 raw chicken meat samples were determined to be contaminated with Salmonella using culture-based methods (i.e., 7 (35%) out of 20 drumstick, 15 (62.5%) out of 24 breast, and 7 (43.75%) out of 16 liver samples). In addition, the frequency of qnrA, qnrB, and qnrS genes in the samples was 10.34%, 68.96%, and 86.20%, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study showed a high frequency of Salmonella contamination and qnr genes in the contaminated samples.


Temperature inside the vehicle cabin is very important to provide comfortable conditions to the car passengers. Temperature inside the cabin will be increased, when the car is left or parked directly under the sunlight. Experimental studies were performed in Baghdad, Iraq (33.3 oN, 44.4 oE) to investigate the effects of solar radiation on car cabin components (dashboard, steering wheel, seat, and inside air). The test vehicle was oriented to face south to ensure maximum (thermal) sun load on the front windscreen. Six different parking conditions were investigated. A suggested car cover was examined experimentally. The measurements were recorded for clear sky summer days started at 8 A.M. till 5 P.M. Results show that interior air temperature in unshaded parked car reaches 70oC and dashboard temperature can approach 100 oC. While, cardboard car shade inside the car not reduce the air temperature inside it. Suggested car cover with 1 cm part-down side windows reduced temperature of cabin components by 70 % in average compare to the base case.


A 3D imager is presented, capable of capturing the depth map of an arbitrary scene. Depth is measured by computing the time-of-flight of a ray of light as it leaves the source and is reflected by the objects in the scene. The round-trip time is converted to a digital code independently for each pixel using a CMOS time-to-digital converter. To reach millimetric accuracies an array of 32/spl times/32 highly sensitive, ultra-low jitter CMOS detectors capable of detecting a single photon is used. The scene is illuminated using a cone of low power pulsed laser light, thus no mechanical scanning devices or expensive optical equipment are required.


[1] Lava flow mapping was conducted on a north-south transect of Olympus Mons using the European Space Agency's Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) image H0037. The HRSC image was coregistered to Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, Thermal Emission Imaging System, and Mars Orbiter Camera data, enabling lava flow structures to be differentiated and mapped consistently across the shield. Because different structures develop as a result of different effusive conditions, their abundance and distribution provide insight into the eruptive history of a shield volcano. Results show that lava channels are the dominant flow structure, whereas tabular sheets are most common beyond the basal scarp. A hummocky unit dominates the summit area and likely represents a combination of (1) volcanic lava flows, (2) pyroclastic deposits, (3) a dust mantle, and (4) frozen volatiles, all of which have been suggested to exist on Olympus Mons in the past. Lava fans are typically associated with lava tubes, indicating that they represent tube outbreaks as was previously suggested as one possible formation mechanism. No vents were identified, suggesting that major rift zones have not developed on the north or south flank. Younger channel-fed flows typically embay older tube-related flows, which they outnumber by a ratio of 5:1. Therefore Olympus Mons likely experienced a change in eruptive style from longer-lived, stable, tube-forming eruptions to shorter-lived, less stable, channel-forming eruptions in the late Amazonian. A similar trend exists for the Hawaiian volcanoes in which a decrease in the magma production rate drives a change to dominantly channel forming eruptions associated with increased shield age.


Background Atypical antipsychotic drugs may have low propensity to induce extrapyramidal side effects in delirious patients. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and tolerability between quetiapine and haloperidol in controlling delirious behavior. Methods A 7-day prospective, double-blind, randomized controlled trial was conducted from June 2009 to April 2011 in medically ill patients with delirium. Measures used for daily assessment included the Delirium Rating Scale-revised-98 (DRS-R-98) and total sleep time. The Clinical Global Impression, Improvement (CGI–I) and the Modified (nine-item) Simpson– Angus Scale were applied daily. The primary outcome was the DRS-R-98 severity scores. The data were analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis. Results Fifty-two subjects (35 males and 17 females) were randomized to receive 25–100 mg/day of quetiapine (n = 24) or 0.5–2.0 mg/day of haloperidol (n = 28). Mean (standard deviation) doses of quetiapine and haloperidol were 67.6 (9.7) and 0.8 (0.3) mg/day, respectively. Over the trial period, means (standard deviation) of the DRS-R-98 severity scores were not significantly different between the quetiapine and haloperidol groups (−22.9 [6.9] versus −21.7 [6.7]; P = 0.59). The DRS-R-98 noncognitive and cognitive subscale scores were not significantly different. At end point, the response and remission rates, the total sleep time, and the Modified (nine-item) Simpson–Angus scores were also not significantly different between groups. Hypersomnia was common in the quetiapine-treated patients (33.3%), but not significantly higher than that in the haloperidol-treated group (21.4%). Limitations Patients were excluded if they were not able to take oral medications, and the sample size was small. Conclusion Low-dose quetiapine and haloperidol may be equally effective and safe for controlling delirium symptoms. Clinical trials registration number clinicaltrials.gov NCT00954603.


We formulate and investigate a uniformly distributed mathematical model (based upon Semenov's theory for thermal explosions) for the thermal response of cellulosic materials in compost piles. The model consists of a mass balance equation for oxygen, a heat balance equation, and incorporates the heat release due to biological activity within the pile. Biological heat generation is known to be present in most industrial processes handling large volumes of bulk organic materials. We utilise singularity theory to investigate the generic properties of the model, as well as to determine the locus of different singularities, namely the cusp, isola and double limit point. Singularity theory provides a useful tool to systematically analyse this system. We investigate the conditions where biological activity results in the initiation of an elevated temperature branch within the compost pile.

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A sensitive procedure employing limiting dilution of activated lymphocytes and 51Cr release from highly labeled target cells was used to derive minimal estimates of the absolute frequency of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) present in a population of mouse lymphocytes activated to alloantigens of the major histocompatibility complex in bulk mixed lymphocyte cultures. From this figure (0.7-1.2%), the maximal rate of target cell killing could be calculated to be approximately 4 targets/CTL/hour.